NBA Insider: 'Conceivable' Bulls Use Lonzo Ball's Contract for Potential Trade

There was a time when Lonzo Ball was seen as the point guard of the present and future for the Chicago Bulls.

Now, the 26-year-old might be a salary addition to a trade after missing two years of action because of knee injuries.

"Ball owns a $21.4 million player option for next season that he'll certainly exercise," K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago reported. "Given that insurance is currently paying the bulk of his contract, it's conceivable that Ball is used as a salary-matching addition to any potential trade the Bulls make before the Feb. 8 trade deadline."

Johnson explained Chicago's $10.2 million disabled player exception for Ball will expire on March 10 and likely won't even be used since the team is hard-capped at $172 million and currently has a payroll that is just below the $165.3 million luxury tax threshold.

It's surely not how the Bulls or UCLA product envisioned his time with the team unfolding when they added him ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.

Chicago was the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in the early portion of his first season with the grouping of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso, Ball and Nikola Vučević all playing well together. Ball was the facilitator who could hit from three-point range when defenders collapsed on others, and everything was clicking.

Yet he was lost to a knee injury that was initially not supposed to sideline him from the rest of the season.

However, he hasn't played since and has undergone three surgeries on his left knee since January 2022. Johnson noted the latest one was in March 2023 and involved a cartilage transplant.

DeRozan is on the final season of his contract, LaVine has been in countless trade rumors, there is still uncertainty about when Ball will return, and the team is just 19-22 and in position to make the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.

Something of a reset may be in order ahead of the February trade deadline, and it may include moving Ball.